When comparing Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC vs MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X, the Slant community recommends Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC for most people. In the question“What are the best GTX 1070 cards?” Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC is ranked 2nd while MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC is:
The GTX 1070 Asus ROG Strix, like its powerful sibling (GTX 1080 ROG Strix) has a full-size metallic backplate which provides extra rigidity. Around the backplate Asus has included Aura RGB lighting with a wide array of different effects available, making the ROG Strix a good choice for building a rig into a windowed chassis. The effects and color can be customized by installing an additional free utility which is also pretty lightweight.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Good build quality
The GTX 1070 Asus ROG Strix, like its powerful sibling (GTX 1080 ROG Strix) has a full-size metallic backplate which provides extra rigidity. Around the backplate Asus has included Aura RGB lighting with a wide array of different effects available, making the ROG Strix a good choice for building a rig into a windowed chassis.
The effects and color can be customized by installing an additional free utility which is also pretty lightweight.
Pro Above-average cooling
The triple-fan cooling system and the optional fans you can add push ROG Strix' cooling performance to above-average levels for a GTX 1070 card. Without any additional fans and under heavy load it will rarely surpass the 61 degree C limit with only the Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme having better cooling.
Pro Additional fans can be attached for even better cooling
There are two four-pin headers at the end of the PCB used to attach additional fans. These headers can be used to improve even more the excellent cooling that the ROG Strix provides.
Pro Has a second HDMI port for added Virtual Reality compatibility
Instead of having three DisplayPorts like most GTX 1070 cards, Asus have opted to exchange one of them in favor of an additional HDMI port. According to them, this change has been implemented to make it possible to attach both a VR device and a display at the same time. This increases VR compatibility since there have been problems with DisplayPort as a conduit for VR headsets.
Pro Smaller size compared to most GTX 1070 cards
The MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X has a smaller size than most GTX 1070 cards on the market which usually have a 2.5-3 slot size, while the Gaming X has a 2-slot size. This makes it a good card for smaller builds which don't have as much physical space.
Pro Excellent design
The GTX 1070 Gaming X, like its GTX 1080 counterpart is an excellent card as far as looks go. The black and red color scheme can easily fit a lot of builds for those users who are obsessed with their build looking as good as possible. It also has an array of RGB lights in the back which can be controlled by an app supplied by MSI.
Pro Very energy efficient
Under normal load the Gaming X uses just under 150W.
Cons
Con Very expensive
Con The Aura (RGB lights) software can be better
The software that controls the backlights can be better and has some missing features which feel like it would have been pretty easy to bake them in, especially for this price and for the fact that Asus went through the hassle of adding them in the first place.
Things like being able to set the temperature for which the lights change or making the lights a certain color when playing a certain game would certainly have been a nice addition.
Con Large
As is the case with many high-end cards, the size of this card means it takes up two backplate slots but covers roughly 3 slots (including the one it's fitted to). This might limit your options for some motherboards, especially configurations smaller than ATX.
Con For the same price there are other cards with better performance
You can find other cards with a better performance for the same price or even lower. One such card for example is the Palit GeForce 1070 GameRock which scored higher than the Gaming X in the FireStrike benchmark.